Steve Dillon, Comic Artist Who Helped Create ‘Preacher,’ Dies at 54

Preacher, which ran for 66 issues and ended in 2000, told the story of Jesse Custer, a disillusioned man of God from Texas, who becomes imbued with the spirit of Genesis.CreditCreditDC ENTERTAINMENT

By Justin Porter

Oct. 23, 2016

Steve Dillon, a comic-book artist best known for Preacher, a long-running series, recently adapted for television, about three companions who literally search for God, died over the weekend in Manhattan. He was 54.

His brother, Glyn, announced the death on Twitter on Saturday but did not say when he died. His friend and collaborator Garth Ennis, a comic book writer, said the cause was a ruptured appendix that Mr. Dillon at first assumed was food poisoning.

Mr. Dillon, who lived in England, had been in New York to attend Comic Con, the annual industry convention for comic book fans.

He was a legend among comic-book fans and considered a master of his craft by colleagues. Known for a deeply expressive, often humorous style that leapt off the page, he created characters that could communicate volumes with a single expression.

His “pages were as fluid as camerawork, as efficient and composed as theater,” the novelist and comic-book writer Warren Ellis said in an interview. “Everything breathed.”

Mr. Dillon was born in London on March 22, 1962, and moved with his family to Luton, Bedfordshire, as a child. He started working in comics at age 16 for Marvel UK, the British imprint of Marvel Comics.

In 1992 he teamed with Mr. Ennis on Hellblazer, a long-running series published by Vertigo, a DC Comics imprint for mature readers. The series tells the story of John Constantine, a chain-smoking, wisecracking magician who frequently tangles with the Devil. It was adapted into a film starring Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz and a short-lived NBC TV series.

Mr. Ennis said his friendship with Mr. Dillon began to evolve into a working partnership in the summer of 1990, over a bottle of Jameson at Mr. Dillon’s home in Dublin, as they talked about what they both wanted to achieve in comics. He said he remembered thinking, of Mr. Dillon: “You’re the one. You’re the guy I can work with.”

Image

Steve Dillon in an undated photograph.

Mr. Dillon became the artist on Hellblazer halfway through Mr. Ennis’s run as the writer. The rapport they established led to Preacher, another Vertigo series, in 1995.

Preacher, which ran for 66 issues and ended in 2000, told the story of Jesse Custer, a disillusioned man of God from Texas who becomes imbued with the spirit of Genesis, which he can use to compel people to follow his orders. With his girlfriend and an Irish vampire, he embarks on a quest to track down God and force him to answer for the state of the world. It was at once an epic quest, a story about love and friendship, and a modern-day homage to the western.

Known for its often brutal subject matter and perverse sense of humor, Preacher won a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for best continuing series in 1999. Mr. Ennis won the award for best writer in 1998.

Mr. Dillon also worked on the character Judge Dredd for the British comic book 2000 AD and the Marvel character the Punisher.

He sent a final Twitter message on Oct. 7 to fans coming to meet him at Comic Con and have him sign copies of his books to raise money for the Hero Initiative, a nonprofit organization he supported that supplies medical and financial assistance to comic-book artists in need.

Preacher was adapted for the AMC channel this year by Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, with Mr. Dillon and Mr. Ennis among the executive producers. It made its debut in May. Reviewing it in The New York Times, James Poniewozik called it “a blasphemous blood bath, a metaphysical action caper, stylized and splattery, that doesn’t have great depth but makes up for it with volume.”

The show, which stars Dominic Cooper as Jesse and Ruth Negga and Joe Gilgun as his companions, finished its first season in July and has been renewed for a second.

Mr. Rogen, saying he was “devastated,” and the writers Stephen King and Neil Gaiman were among those who paid tribute to Mr. Dillon on Twitter.

In addition to his brother, who is also an artist and who designed costumes for the coming movie “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Mr. Dillon is survived by his parents, Bernard and Muriel; three children, Anthony, Mark and Jamie; a sister, Julie Dillon Bleadon; and two grandchildren.

George Gene Gustines contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Steve Dillon, 54, Comic Artist; Helped Create ‘Preacher’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe